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GS-911 on a MAC Possible?

I have the GS-911 setup and am currently running it on a Windows laptop. Works great, and I use it, and don't want to do anything to lose it.

For various reasons I'd like my next laptop to be a MAC. There is no GS-911 version for the MAC. I know that there are ways to run Windows applications on the MAC, but other than that, I don't know anything about it.

I am wondering if the utilities that allow running Windows applications on the MAC are sufficiently compatible that the GS-911 USB interface would work properly.

Not looking for guesswork - I'm sure I can find tons of that on various MAC forums. What I'm asking is, has anyone here ever tried it? If so, did it work?

Some folks use boot camp to boot their mac into windows. Others use Fusion, or Parallels, or the free Virtual Box to create a virtual machine and install windows in that. In either case you still need a copy of windows. I'm using a copy of XP that came from a long dead laptop inside of a VirtualBox machine. This works for my GPS, the RepROM, and the GS-911.

GS-911 on a MAC

I run Windows Vista on an IMac. I use Parallels 5.0. I did this so that I could run the BMW
CD Repair manual. Also got the GS-911 and downloaded the the program. It works very
good. Just like its supposed to.
I suspect it would work just as well on a MacBook.
Since I got mine, they've come out with Parallels 6.0
If I had to do it over I'd probably just buy a cheaper laptop with windows already installed.

Not looking for guesswork - I'm sure I can find tons of that on various MAC forums. What I'm asking is, has anyone here ever tried it? If so, did it work?

You might have problems with some of the emulation software in various instances (especially the I/O), but if you run windows under bootcamp on the Mac, windows boots directly to the hardware, without the emulation layer, and there are no compatibility issues with anything. It's an Intel chipset, exactly the same as what you get with a pc.

Salty Fog Rally 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 And DRAT! Missed the last one in 2015!

Give up a bit of HDD space and run Windows on its own partition using Boot Camp. Using Boot Camp with Windows installed is the only sure-fire answer. (Mac Pro w/4 dual core Xenon processors - 3 500G Mac drives, 1 500G Windows drive.) Emulators are just that. Boot Camp and two partitions gives you two machines (Win and Mac in one). While the Windows system may not even be able to recognize any of the Mac drives, the Mac will see the Windows drive and any 'data' (doc/docx, pdf, music, movies, photos, Internet stuff, etc) and can easily be moved/copied/used by all Mac programs.

If I need a machine that will run any bit of windows software guaranteed then I might buy the above. However, the question was about GS-911. GS-911 is known to work using the free Virtual Box [my experience]. GS-911 is known to work using Parallels 5 [CJCS said so]. GS-911 is known to work using Fusion [Toadmanor said so].

dhgeyer has lots of options. He doesn't NEED to run boot camp. There may be reasons not to, e.g. copy and paste between windows and OS X .

GS-911 on a Macintosh computer

As one who has had Mac computers for all too many years, may I strongly suggest you not cross the line and load Paralleles on your new Mac just to run a specific program.

Although I have a 15" MacBook Pro and a 27 Inch IMac found
the Mac although entirely capable did not seem to like to the "foreign" software.

For the applications I required in my world which are Microsoft based only,
purchased an Accer netbook whch did all I wanted in a small neat MS format
machine. Keep in mind the only real similarity between the devices is the Intel chip, most everything else is different.

If you're purchasing the Mac for a reliability factor, keep in mind Mac software is different that MS and related software.
Not any better or worse, simply different.

Again, thank you all for your consideration and insights. I'm surprised and encouraged that there have been this many responses. Clearly this is doable, and that's all I need to know right now.

My daughter has made the transition to the MAC, and didn't have too much trouble with it. Of course I know that there will be a learning curve, but it doesn't scare me at all. My wife and I have gotten pretty fed up with the short life span of Windows laptops, due to basic operating system failures. We have decided that, when our current ones fail, they will be replaced with MACs. Our daughter was going through a laptop about every 6 to 8 months. My wife and I were able to keep ours going for a year or two. Rachael's MAC has been going strong for about a year and a half. Being a young person, and a student, hers takes a beating. I'm convinced.

My Gateway is not showing any signs of failure yet, so really I'm just doing some groundwork for the future, making sure my bases are covered. Sue's Gateway is slowly dying, and will need replacing soon. It's frustrating. Some operating system file gets clobbered, and the damage slowly spreads. No one seems to be able to fix the problems. We're just sick of it. It's happened too many times.

I've played with our daughter's MAC (Macbook Pro) a little, and like the built in video editor, built in FTP client, and the fact that in the MAC world the anti-virus stuff is built in and you don't have to deal with it. So I won't be starting totally from scratch when I make the jump.

And, yes, we do have a good firewall and anti-virus software on the PC's. As far as I'm concerned Windows is just a weak operating system, always has been, always will be.

I've been using a Mac since 1985 and have been bi-platform with WinOS on a PC since 1995. I feel very comfortable in both worlds. That being said, I do prefer the Mac environment for its colorspace and for its trouble-free daily operation. So, about 3 years ago I set up the computer with Bootcamp. It worked very well, but I found the need to work in the WinOS world and in the MacOS world simultaneously.

I installed Parallels (3.0) on my 2GB MacBook Pro and did not have a very good experience. It seemed like there were unexplained freezes and errors, and I immediately ditched Parallels for VMware Fusion. What a difference; smooth, dependable, excellent hardware support and great customer support. However, I understand that the most recent versions of Parallels are more refined and are a terrific competitor to Fusion.

So, based on earlier posters success with the GS-911 in a virtual machine environment, I would suggest that you go for it. I would recommend that you have at least 2GB of memory and, perhaps, go with XP or Vista. While Win7 is supported by both Parallels and Fusion, I'm not sure if anyone has used a GS-911 on a Win7 VM.

not quite the answer for the OP

however:

iMac with Fusion primarily to run AutoDesk's AutoCAD via Windoze XP.
Never an issue.
My point to the point concerning PC viruses (virii?), with respect Windoze viruses etc, you can keep Windows from ever having access to the internet and thus avoid virus/trojan horses/malware etc from creeping in.

{snip}...My point to the point concerning PC viruses (virii?)...{snip}

Don't forget that Fusion allows you to take "snapshots" of your WinVM.

I keep all my Windows working files (.est, .docx, .pptx, etc) in a shared directory on the Mac side and scan Windows once a week for issues. I then take a snapshot of the "clean" VM. Should I encounter any "virii", I just restore the snapshot VM! Note: the need to do this has only happened once in about three years.